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A group of senior scientists has warned that 1 June is too soon for schools to reopen safely in England and that more time is needed to set up an effective track and trace system to contain future outbreaks.

The independent Sage committee, chaired by the former government chief scientist Sir David King, says new modelling of coronavirus shows the risk to children will be halved if they return to school two weeks later than ministers propose. Delaying until September would further reduce the risk.

The extra two weeks would allow more time for infections to fall in the community and for crucial track and trace capacity to be built up so new cases are found and isolated fast.

_________________If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

Labour has demanded an investigation into how the outsourcing firm Serco revealed the details of 300 contract tracers.Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said:It has never been clear what expertise or specialist knowledge Serco can bring to contact tracing. (Politics Live, Guardian)

Or anything else, for that matter.

FAR more to the point, Labour could go on the attack for using Serco et al at all, since there are far better ways of doing testing ! Extra-good one in the G this morning, which raises a LOT of questions ...

UK Covid-19 saliva test to be trialled on 5,000 key workers

Alternative to nasal swab to be tested on police and army staff in next two weeks

" A number of the government’s regional drive-through testing facilities, which are run by private contractors, require people to carry out the swab on themselves with the aid of a nine-page, 20-step instruction manual.

His claim has been met with scepticism by some in the scientific community, while health bosses in Greater Manchester have asked to see the research. “We’ve no idea how many [tests there are], are they statistically significant? I’d love to see those data,” said Beales, director of the Centre for Translational Genomics.

The fallibility of the nasal swabs has led some GPs to advise patients to disregard negative results if they still have symptoms.

Dr Richard Vautrey, the chair of the British Medical Association’s general practitioners committee, said he had seen patients with coronavirus symptoms but repeated negative tests.

“No test is perfect, particularly when tests are self-administered and this is a particularly difficult test to do [so] there will be some false negatives,” he said. “Going on the symptoms is as good a guide as any as to what condition a patient has.”

Crazy but typical of the Johnson Régime, because nearly two months ago -- --

Quote:

The UK government turned down an opportunity to buy tens of thousands of potentially “game-changing” coronavirus tests from an award-winning British scientist just days after Matt Hancock pledged to hit 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.

I assume Rachel Reeves is getting her small attack in first, leaving the main one to the LP Health Team, because there IS a very serious attack to be made. All a question of timing, of course . I see that the Tories have been doing some double-counting in the tests, now there's a surprise !https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-heal ... officials/

I am just hoping that Labour really does have an understanding of the latest medical news as this is evolving pretty fast and the Tories are floundering (TM Polly) .

One example is tabloid-type concentration on brute figures like the number of tests when it's becoming ever more obvious that the tests have serious flaws when wrongly used.

A group of senior scientists has warned that 1 June is too soon for schools to reopen safely in England and that more time is needed to set up an effective track and trace system to contain future outbreaks.

The independent Sage committee, chaired by the former government chief scientist Sir David King, says new modelling of coronavirus shows the risk to children will be halved if they return to school two weeks later than ministers propose. Delaying until September would further reduce the risk.

The extra two weeks would allow more time for infections to fall in the community and for crucial track and trace capacity to be built up so new cases are found and isolated fast.

I love the Independent SAGE ! Their first youtube was long, but very good . Hope later ones have better sound tho.Of course, it all depends what you mean by "schools going back" .In HowSilly's canton of Vaud it was primary classes at half-strength on alternate days.I am in a Green Zone.--First week here it was maternelle and a couple of primary classes.Second week was intermediate (collège). SIL had only a quarter-class, 7 desks out of 28 , not all students wanting to come back at any rate? And distance-learning continues. (A few score schools re-closed on isolated cases, one teacher or cleaner positive, ALL OUT ! ) Theoretically lycées next month, daughter doesn't know many details . Online classes going OK.

A group of senior scientists has warned that 1 June is too soon for schools to reopen safely in England and that more time is needed to set up an effective track and trace system to contain future outbreaks.

The independent Sage committee, chaired by the former government chief scientist Sir David King, says new modelling of coronavirus shows the risk to children will be halved if they return to school two weeks later than ministers propose. Delaying until September would further reduce the risk.

The extra two weeks would allow more time for infections to fall in the community and for crucial track and trace capacity to be built up so new cases are found and isolated fast.

Heaven forbid that it was just just an arbitrary date without much scientific basis behind it, eh?

"" The Department of Health and Social Care is remaining tight-lipped about its decision to award a contract to the UK subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar US credit reporting agency that checks patient data when attempting to book a Coronavirus home test online.

Tens of thousands of people have already visited the Government website to book their test. Users are told that, in order to confirm their identity, they need to share their information with TransUnion. It is the smallest of the three largest credit agencies, along with Experian and Equifax.

Individuals unwilling to share their credit data are asked to start the process again and advised to choose the drive-through test option. It is unclear what possible COVID-19-related reason there would be for the Government to grant the company access to UK citizens’ information.

Privacy and civil liberties campaigners have already warned about tech firms getting their hands on patient data in the battle against the Coroanvirus. ""

During March 26–April 23, a total of 19 cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed among 99 long-term care skilled nursing facilities residents (19.2%). At the time of diagnosis, 14 of 19 residents were asymptomatic, eight of whom were presymptomatic; one patient died. One half of the eight staff members with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were initially asymptomatic. This report demonstrates the high prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection that can occur in skilled nursing facilities, highlighting the potential for widespread transmission among residents and staff members before illness is recognized... .---Limited testing and delayed recognition of symptomatic cases in congregate living settings can result in large and protracted outbreaks. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/ ... 21e1-H.pdf

Hi JA ! Extremely good G article above on testing and False Negatives . What with possibly being asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and what my pharmacist neighbour suggested just now -- past the stage where the NASTIES are in the upper regions and have descended to the lungs ...Well I don't know if she's right on that, but even the best testing appears to need to hit a 'window' of max infection in the nasopharingeal region at the right time. And then that those super-invasive long swabs catch it !

Laura Kuenssberg@bbclaurakLevel 1:PM's chief adviser did travel from London to County Durham during lockdown when he and his wife had coronavirus to stay in a separate building at his family's farm, a source close to him confirms - source says it is not true that he was spoken to by police

Quote:

Paul Bernal@PaulbernalUKLevel 1:So when Dom’s in trouble, he gets ‘his people’ to call up @bbclaurak to act as firefighter. She does the job. Not the job she’s supposed to, but the job for him.

Quote:

James Doleman@jamesdolemanLevel 3:Replying to @jamesdoleman and @bbclaurakThe police say they spoke to "the family.'

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